Langley Good Times Cruise-In: Win everything a gearhead needs

When the Cruise-In calls it the Ultimate Gargage Package, they mean it.

There are 78 separate tools and pieces of equipment in this year’s Ultimate Garage, with a little more than $24,000 in total.

And at a draw at this year’s Cruise-In, one person will walk away with all of it.

This is the 16th year the Langley Good Times Cruise-In has held the prize draw, in partnership with Lordco, which supplies the massive haul of auto shop gear, said Cruise-In president Wayne Patterson.

“They’re a great partner,” he said.

The items in the garage prize range from a shop stool to a pressure test kit, packs of work gloves to bench grinders, drills, saws, hammers, a vise, a shop vac, all the way up to an engine hoist and engine stand.

“It’s a big list of tools,” Patterson said.

The package is intended to include everything you could possibly need to work on a car in a home shop.

“If you’re a new car nut, or just starting up a hobby shop, it pretty much gives you every tool you would need,” Patterson said.

He noted that if you’re someone who’s been in the hobby for a long time – like he has been – it’s an opportunity to upgrade everything in your shop with brand new tools, many of which are ergonomically designed and easier to use in a way those from 20 or 30 years ago weren’t.

Patterson remembered in the early days of the giveaway, there was often a sense of shock in the crowd when the name of the winner was called, and they were right there in the audience.

For such a big prize, the odds are a lot better than the lottery.

“This is not like one in a million, this is one in thousands,” said Patterson.

Tickets are sold for about a month in advance of the Cruise-In, but the bulk of them are sold on the day of the car show itself, this year on Saturday, Sept. 7.

The Cruise-In volunteers announce the raffle several times a day during the big event, trying to get some hype going, said Patterson.

Then there’s a final announcement of the close of sales – there’s usually a mad rush right at the end, said Patterson.

Finally, a board members will draw the winning ticket and master of ceremonies and Langley Advance Times columnist Jim McGregor will announce the winner.

Tickets for the garage are $10 or three for $25, and the draw will be held on the main stage at the Cruise-In on Sept. 7 at 3:30 p.m.